Kubiak talks penalties: Balancing discipline with aggression

In 2012, the Houston Texans had the most penalties they have had as a team since Gary Kubiak was coach.

Usually, the Texans are in the top to the middle of the NFL for fewest penalties, averaging in the 5 to 6 per game range. Last year, they were in the bottom third in the NFL in penalties, ending the year averaging 6.6 penalties per game and 7.4 penalties on the road. The average for the last 3 games was 6.3 per game. In the miserable game against the Vikings, they had 9 penalties.

I asked Kubiak about his thoughts on the unusual number of penalties in 2012 and how he works on that during camp. His response was one looking for balancing discipline with aggression:

“I agree with you and we had a lot of them late. You’re right; we’ve been pretty disciplined, from a penalty standpoint, on both sides of the ball. It’s something you’ve got to improve upon. All you can do is coach it in practice. We’ll have officials come in here this week. I think they come in tomorrow. I don’t like having them here all of the time. I don’t like taking away the aggression in practice, but, at the same time, we’ll get them involved here in the next four days. We’ll make sure we take a look at everything.”

Today during 11-on-11 there was a series which included back-to-back false start penalties, which is the kind of pre-snap penalty that is never acceptable. And in every practice, observers guess whether pass interference would be called on certain passes because the NFL tends to err on the side of calling them. Starting tomorrow, the zebras make the call.